Searching for Sherlock Holmes
by SherlockHolmes221BBakerStreet
Summary: A story of John Watson returning from the war to find out that everyone but Sherlock exists.
1. Chapter 1

Searching for Sherlock Holmes

The last John ever saw of Sherlock Holmes was his cold body lying on the pavement. There was no viewing at the funeral. And one day, a few months after Sherlock took a fall, John woke up. In truth, he had never left Afghanistan. Going home, meeting Sherlock, solving cases, the fall, all of it was never real. John had made it all up in his mind while he was in a 2 month coma after being shot in the left shoulder and loosing a great amount of blood.

John woke up on January 6th 2012. Exactly 9 days before Sherlock would fall. According to John. To everyone else January 15th would be a normal day, according to the news it would rain, but that was normal in London. On January 10th John was driven to the airport. He boarded flight 221 and sat in seat 36B. On the eight hour flight back to London, he thought all about his strange dream.

John could remember every detail of the dream. He thought about how he had met Sherlock at the morgue, looking at lab samples. John had been amazed when Sherlock was able to tell John all about John after meeting for only a few minuets. That was part of the reason he had decided to move in with Sherlock, because he was so amazing, yet he was also so lonely.

A few months after John arrived back in London, he was living in a flat all by himself. He had a job at a pharmacy where he worked 5 days a week with Saturday and Sunday off. Every so often he would wake up from nightmares about pill bottles and evil cabbies, yellow paint and smiley faces, paintings and swimming pools. Every time he woke up he wrote down everything he could remember, so that later on he could compare the old dreams to the new ones.

On a cold, fairly normal, rainy Saturday in April, John was visiting his favorite café. Speedys sandwich bar and café. He enjoyed visiting Speedys because it was on Baker Street, right next to flat 221B. But on this particular day, John was running late to the little café. Perhaps if he hadn't gone to bed so late, or if he had washed his trousers the day before, maybe, just maybe he wouldn't have run into none other that Mrs. Hudson, returning from her weekly shopping.

John closes his eyes tight and opened them again.

"Mrs. Hudson? Is that you? Is it really you?" John asked. He peered at her thinking that maybe he had finally snapped.

"Yes, do I know you?" Mrs. Hudson asked. She stepped back due to the fact that John was leaning forward just enough to make her uncomfortable.

John wondered how this could happen. He was told that everything was just a dream. That no one he dreamed about was real. But unless he was dreaming at this moment, she was quite real.

"Mrs. Hudson I have a question for you. Do you happen to know a man by the name of Sherlock Holmes?"

"I don't believe so." Mrs. Hudson answered. John felt the excitement die out of him and started to walk away when Mrs. Hudson said, "But there was a man here just last week asking about the same name. What was his name? Ah, Mycroft. Mycroft Holmes was here just the other day asking about a man called Sherlock Holmes." She called to him. Turning around, John hurried to her side.

"Did you say Mycroft Holmes?" He asked.

"Yes Mycroft." She said staring at him.

"Mrs. Hudson, you are a saint!" John yelled. He grabbed either side of her head and kissed her on the head before running off back to his flat.

As soon as John was home he was thinking everything through. If Mrs. Hudson and Mycroft were real, could Molly and Lestrade be real too? What about Irene and Moriarty?

John thought about all this. Why would Mycroft be asking about Sherlock Holmes? After all they were brothers, and Mycroft would be able to figure out where Sherlock was easily, after all he was very protective of his younger brother, even if Sherlock didn't return the feelings.

For the first time since John returned home from the war, he didn't have the usual dreams. Instead he dreamed of Mrs. Hudson and Mycroft Holmes.

The next day the café was closed due to it being Sunday. So John made a cup of tea at home and put it in a thermos. He walked through London still pondering over what had happened the day before. As he was passing St. Barts Hospital it started to rain, and because he didn't bring an umbrella on his walk, ducked inside the hospital to shelter.

Not wanting to loiter, John went to the cafeteria that was to the left of the front desk. While he was there John ordered spaghetti. It was the least expensive thing on the menu and he wasn't really hungry, so instead of eating he looked at everyone else in the room. There were a few patients that were well enough to come down and eat instead of staying up in their rooms. There were a few doctors that were on break, the other receptionist was there eating some green jell-o, and a few medical students were huddled at the corner table discussing some blood samples that they were allowed to test.

John was so busy looking at the other tables that he didn't notice it when someone sat down at his.

"He-hello?" The voice snapped John out of his trance. He looked for the source of the voice, finding out that it came a mousy looking woman. She looked to be in her late thirties with brown hair held in a high ponytail.

"Is anyone sitting here?" She gestured to an empty seat across from him.

"No, it's only me."

"Well can I sit down?" She asked.

"Oh! Of course. Take a seat." Stupid, stupid, stupid! John thought to himself. Of course she would want to sit there. Why else would she ask if anyone was sitting there?

"My name's Molly." She said with an awkward chuckle, "What's your name?"

"John. My name is John."

"Oh that's a lovely name." She said, while looking down at her food.

John looked at Molly. He knew her but she didn't show up in his dreams as much. The most apparent memory he could muster is when she was dating Jim Moriarty. Of course at the time she didn't know exactly who he was, but that was the best memory he had of her.

"So do you work at the hospital?" John asked. She gave him a puzzling look and replied, "Well yeah I work at the morgue." She looked down at her lab coat as she spoke.

"Oh, sorry that should have been obvious." John said, blushing.

"Well I'm assuming you don't work here, or I would know you already." Molly said smiling, "And I'm going to assume the best in you and trust that you are a nice person."

"Oh. Thank you?" John wasn't sure whether to be offended or happy.

The rest of the afternoon, or at least the rest of Molly's break, John and Molly got to know each other. Before she left though, John asked her, "Would you like to go out sometime?" She agreed to a date on Tuesday, giving John two days to figure out where he would take her.


	2. Chapter 2

Searching for Sherlock Holmes Chapter 2

On Monday John arrived at Speedys at seven as usual. This time he paid special attention to the flat next door. He stayed at Speedys for an hour and he didn't see anyone walking in or out of the flat. And if Mrs. Hudson had the same price as before for renting out the flat, then John would be able to afford it. And he was seriously considering taking it.

Eventually John gave up any hope of just waiting for someone to walk out and built up the courage to go knock on the door. He waited and waited and waited. No one answered. He knocked again. No answer. He raised his hand to knock again but, as he was about to knock, stopped himself. He turned away from the golden 221B and started to walk away.

"Excuse me?" John heard the voice of Mrs. Hudson coming from the doorway. He turned around and there she was, "Did you need something?" She seemed annoyed to have someone knocking on her door to only turn away.

"Yes, I'm John Watson. I was here just the other day looking for Sherlock Holmes."

"Oh yes, I remember you. You rushed away so quickly and to be honest you scared me for a little bit. But anyway, do you need anything?" She asked firmly. She obviously thought that this was a waste of time

"Yes I was wondering if flat 221B is available to rent out." John crossed his fingers behind his back and hoped with all his heart that he would be able to live in this flat with so many lost memories.

"It is available for rent. The only problem is that the last tenant left behind almost all of his possessions. He only took a few things." She said.

"That's no problem at all. I just want to rent it out. Even if there is stuff left behind I will get rid of anything I don't want or need. But I must ask what is the price?"

She thought for a second and than said, "The price per month for renting out a flat is about £900 per month."

"That's not too bad. Is it possible for me to rent out 221B than? I can have my first payment in by the end of the month."

"Sure, I just need you to sign some papers and than you can start moving in whenever you want." She led him inside and had him sign a contract, stating that if he didn't pay the rent on time she could raise it or kick him out. When that was finished John went back outside, bought some tea from Speedys and walked back to his "old" flat.

He left for work at nine just as he always did. He worked like he always did. But this time he thought about 221B. He would start packing up as soon as he got home, naturally. But what about all the previous tenants stuff? Would he just throw it out? If it was already furnished than he wouldn't need to bother to bring his bed, couch, table, chairs, or any other type of furniture. It would all be there. By the end of Johns work day at five o'clock, he had decided that he would go and look at the furniture that was there before making a final decision.

John walked back home that night with a leftover stack of flattened boxes he had got at the pharmacy. The pharmacy had changed location recently and had an abundance of boxes that they wanted to get rid of. While he had been asking his boss for some boxes, he also asked if he could take the next day off to move. She granted his wish, on one exception he had to work late for the rest of the week to make up for lost hours.

When he got home he started to pack up all of his clothes, well all except one pair for tomorrow of course. After that was done he started to pack everything else. Almost everything was packed and John only had used two boxes. Than John realized, the only thing that had kept him going these past months was the thought of Sherlock. He had spent almost all his free time thinking about Sherlock Holmes, and because of that he had very little to pack. In fact the only hobby he could really think of at the moment was writing in his journals about Sherlock.

John sighed and finished packing. He had everything except his big furniture in boxes. John would wait and tomorrow go and look at 221B.


End file.
